Me: Ellooooooo everyone! It's time for . . . A NEW STORY!

Ikuto: And she just HAD to drag me from Shugo Chara . . .

Me: You got a problem with that? *glares at Ikuto*

Ikuto: . . . No . . .

Me: Yeah, yeah, you just say that for now . . .

Ikuto: Vamp-chan doesn't own TCOVT or Shugo Chara. She just owns the plot.

Me: Well put, Ikuto, well put.

Vlad: Hey, guys.

Meredith: OMG IT'S MY BOYFRIEND VLAD!

Me: You wish, ya Mary-Sue. Oh yeah . . . I forgot. It's my tenth fic, yea!!!! I'm probably going to do a one-shot to celebrate that, sooooo . . . on with the chapter!!

Preface

A mysterious figure stepped out of the shadows in the alley and sighed. They didn't like doing the dirty work for the council. Now they had to search for some kid their age and bring them back to D'Ablo. Yep, it was just their daily job, doing stupid chores for D'Ablo.

But they hated it.

Was it so hard for D'Ablo to give it a rest?

Simply put, D'Ablo was crazy, crazy enough to think that his precious 'Pravus' was going to give him power. They scanned over the area quickly and stepped out of the alley under a flickering streetlight. As soon as they were sure no one was there, they were gone as quickly as they had come.

"Hello."

"What do you want, Derek?"

"Can't I say hey to my best man?"

"Your wedding isn't until next year. Now, I'll repeat my question. What do you want?"

"D'Ablo sent you something. He wants to give you this." Derek fished around in his pockets and held out a picture of a man in a purple top hat. "He said he's close to the Pravus."

They glanced over it once and raised an eyebrow. "Tell D'Ablo I can take care of myself. If he sent me to search for his oh-so-mighty Pravus, shouldn't he just sit on the sidelines? It's my job, so tell him to back off." They then gave Derek a good shove out of the way, and continued their search.

Derek shoved his hands into his pockets, the picture gone.

They glanced at the picture once more then shook their head and stuffed it into their pockets.

Chapter One

Vlad sat up in bed abruptly. He gasped, having once again, a nightmare. He glanced at the clock and sighed. It was three in the morning. Vlad raked his hair back and kicked the covers off. He looked out of his window and for a second, saw a person, but shook it off. They weren't there after he looked back.

Vlad jogged down the stairs, bending down once to pet Amenti. He grabbed a snack pack from the fridge and drank it on the spot. His fangs were safely tucked inside the tissues of his gums for a while. Lately, Vlad had been finding it quite hard to control his thirst.

Nelly was stumbling down the stairs tiredly, rubbing her eyes. "Vlad?"

"It's me." Vlad said, wiping a trail of blood running down his chin with his sleeve.

"Couldn't sleep either?"

"Uh-huh."

"I'll get you some tea." Nelly yawned and pulled out a bag of blood, pushing it into the microwave. She took out a teacup and set it on the counter while grabbing the warmed blood out of the microwave and pouring out its contents.

"Thanks." Vlad said and took a swig.

After a couple of hours of TV, the door bell rang. Vlad opened the door and smiled when he saw his best friend, Henry.

Henry smiled back. "Hey, man. Ready for some quality time with Meredith?"

"Heck, yeah." Vlad punched Henry's arms playfully before slinging his backpack over his shoulder and walking down the sidewalk. Today was a cloudy, gray day . . . just how Vlad liked it.

"So, you gonna ask her to the prom, or what?" Henry asked casually, keeping pace with Vlad.

"Of course I am. It's good to be early before someone gets her first."

"Good choice, good choice." Henry nodded. "Have you heard?"

"What?" Vlad asked, scrunching his brows together in confusion.

"There's gonna be a new science teacher, and I heard they're bringing a kid with 'em too. . . today."

"Do you know if they're in high school?"

"That, I do know. They are in high school, but I don't know if they're a dude or somethin'."

"As soon as you find out it's a girl, you're going to start flirting." Vlad rolled his eyes, chuckling.

"And I'm proud of it!" Henry winked then shouldered Vlad and pointed towards a moving truck. "Thought so, they're living right there."

Vlad's head snapped in the direction Henry pointed at. "Hmm . . . Guess you were right, then."

A blond woman exited the house by the moving truck and started what looked like dragging, a male teenager outside. They were wearing red mesh shorts with white and black stripes and a black hoodie with the hood over their head to prevent anyone from seeing their face. They clearly didn't look very comfortable. They exchanged a few whispers and a quick hug before the blond woman started for her car and drove towards the school.

The teen started walking down the driveway, while Henry and Vlad stared.

"Wanna invite them to walk to school with us?"

Vlad nodded and started towards him. "Hey, man. You the noob?"

The teen simply nodded and kept walking away from Vlad and Henry.

"Wait! Um . . . Do you want to walk to school with us?" Vlad said quickly.

He stiffened and turned around. Like the other response, he nodded wordlessly and motioned for Henry and Vlad to catch up with him. They quickly caught up with him, and they started walking at the same pace. There was an awkward silence before Henry cleared his throat.

"I'm Henry and this is Vlad." He motioned toward himself and Vlad. "May we ask who you are?"

He turned around and pointed to the name on the back of the hoodie. It said 'Ashton'.

"Oh, Ashton . . . can we call you Ash?" Henry asked.

Another nod, and they were all back in silence.

"There's the high school up ahead, Ash. Do you want us to go with you to the office?"

He shrugged and started to quicken his pace. Vlad looked at Henry who also shrugged and jogged after him. Vlad kept his pace slow but was shoved down by none other than Tom and Bill.

"Welcome back, Goth." Bill smirked and dragged him to the nearest brick wall and stood him up to it.

Vlad had no way to escape. He was surrounded by his two archenemies and was going to get a good beating. Bill raised his fist as Vlad closed his eyes. Better to get it over with than to try to fight and get hurt more than he had intended. He didn't want to go back to the hospital again. . . .

Then he noticed. Wasn't Bill's fist supposed to have had impact with Vlad's face a long time ago? Vlad peeked through his eyelashes. What he saw made them widen into big wide circles of shock.

Both Bill and Tom were lying on the ground near Ash's feet, groaning in pain with black eyes. Ash shoved his hands in his pockets and started walking towards the office once again.

"Hey, Ash!" Vlad ran over to him and tried to get a good look at his face to give him sincere thanks. "Thanks for . . . back there."

Ash patted his back as if to say 'You okay?'.

Vlad nodded and continued to walk in with Ashton. Henry was there to greet him when he entered. "I saw what happened out there, dude! Man, does Ash have a punch! Bill and Tom might not have enough strength to pinch you, now!"

Ash was seen nodding to the secretary and leaving with a few sheets of paper, probably a schedule and locker combinations, and heading towards Vlad and Henry.

"I wonder what you could do pitching with that arm!" Henry looked thoughtful, thinking how the baseball team could do with Ash on their team. . . .

"Hey, Henry, snap out of it." Vlad snapped his fingers in front of Henry's face.

"Sorry, dude . . . Oh, Vlad? Could you show Ash where his classes are, 'cause I got to go to student council?" Henry asked.

"Yeah, sure. Just go already, before you're late." Vlad shooed him off and turned to Ash. "He's president."

Ash nodded once again and handed over the schedule for him to look over.

"You've got the same first class as me it seems." Vlad gave Ash back the paper. "So just follow and you're good." Vlad started walking and glanced over his shoulder. Ash was right behind him.

Vlad cleared his throat next to Mrs. Bell and pointed towards Ash. Mrs. Bell nodded in acknowledgement and sent Vlad to his seat. Whispers erupted throughout the room. Word spreads fast in small towns. The only place that seemed it did not have reached was Vlad's ears.

"Class! We have a new student named Ashton Varner. Please treat him as you would treat your friends."

Chelsea smirked and whispered something sarcastically Sylvia. Vlad could make out the words perfectly. "Oh, lovely, we've got another Goth."

Vlad looked at Chelsea through slits and started poking in her head.

They had enough nerds in English to start an army! If it wasn't for her, the class would be the dorkiest in the whole school. Oh, yes . . . Chelsea Whitaker was the coolest, most popular in the whole town. She'd be prom queen in that dr-

Vlad could no longer take anymore of her selfish thoughts. He crept back into her mind and inserted an action just to settle things. . . .

Chelsea stood up abruptly, all eyes on her, confused. "I LOVE GOTH GUYS! THEY'RE SO HOT!"

The class burst into laughter, and chuckle or two escaped from Mrs. Bell's always-turned-in-a-frown mouth. Ash seemed to be as quiet as ever, cocking his head at Chelsea. Mrs. Bell was soon back into her original composure, and was clapping her hands and shushing the class.

Chelsea was scooting so low in her seat that she could almost sit on the floor, while blushing madly.

"Mr. Varner, you may sit next to Mr. Tod." Mrs. Bell said when everything was settled down.

Ash sat down next to Vlad and tilted his chair back, looking relaxed for the incoming boring lesson.

Lunchtime . . .

"Over here, guys!" Henry waved over at Ash and Vlad, sitting at his older brother's table as usual.

Vlad waved back with his free hand and started walking, Ash right on his trail.

One of the guys sitting at the table turned to Ash and grinned. "So, you the new guy, eh?"

Ash gave another of his infamous nods and sat down in the middle of two of the bigger guys.

"He has name, George." Henry's very popular brother laughed. "What is his name?" He turned to Henry.

"Ashton, but Vlad and I call him Ash." Henry said, grinning.

"'Kay, guys, no one gets to beat Ash up unless it's me."

"I wouldn't count on winning bro." Henry chuckled. "If only you saw Ash throw some punches at Bill and Tom. He has some power, man."

"How 'bout joining the boy's baseball team, Ash?" Henry turned to Ashton, who was in the middle of eating one of his home-brought sandwiches.

Ash shrugged and kept munching on his sandwich.

"Or maybe the football team?" The guy named George suggested.

"Perfect! You can come to try-outs later!" Henry stretched his arm over the table and punched Ash's arm playfully.

George patted Ash's back encouragingly.

After school. . . .

Vlad and Henry had told Ash to meet them at the main entrance of school and were waiting.

"What's taking Ash so long?" Henry asked, tapping his foot impatiently.

"Dude, I thought only girls on TV did that." Vlad chuckled at Henry's tapping foot. "And I honestly don't know. I'll go look for him." Vlad made his way back into the abandoned school halls.

A loud slam echoed through the hall. Vlad started running then, half of him not wanting to see what he was about to see.

Apparently, Bill and Tom had a new rag doll to play with. Ash was pinned against the locker by both Bill and Tom. His arms and legs were held against the metal.

"We owe you a little something, Goth number two." Tom snickered.

Vlad pushed into Tom's mind and inserted an action, lightly.

Tom turned to Bill. "Let's just beat up, Vlad, dude. We don't want our butts kicked once again by Goth number 2. Let's go." Tom shoved Bill away from Ash and moved him along the hall.

When they were gone, Vlad stepped out of his hiding place and held out a hand to a sitting Ash. Ash took it gratefully and Vlad helped him up. Ash winced a bit when Vlad touched his wrist.

"Did you get a bruise?" Vlad took Ash's wrist and pulled back the sleeve a bit. Sure enough, purple was beginning to form on his wrist. "Mm-hmm . . . why don't you go to the bathroom for a bit and try to, I don't know . . . run some cold water over it?"

Ash nodded and made his way towards the bathroom.

After a few minutes. . . .

Vlad was getting impatient. How long could someone take to run some water over their wrist? Vlad made up his mind to investigate, so he opened the door of the bathroom. What he saw surprised him. Where was Ash?

Me: Ooh . . . cliffy! 0-o

Vlad: What's the secret?

Me: Uh-uh, I'm not telling.

Vlad: Shoot.

Me: Hope you liked! Review, plz!!!